Kawakami: Warriors wild Game 7 loss to Clippers may be end of an era

LOS ANGELES -- This was a fittingly furious last stand for Mark Jackson's merry band.

Will he come back as Warriors coach? Undecided and unknown, but this game was every bit of testimony Jackson might want.

Warriors fans will talk about Saturday's Game 7 for years and decades, and when they do, they will remember that the Warriors were under-sized and under-manned and just kept battling.

They will remember the sheer audacity of this team, the stubborn pride, and that they took the Clippers to the end of seven games.

But they will also have to say that the Warriors lost, dropped in the end by larger, faster Clippers.

How was Game 7 decided, at last? With a two-minute final rush of wondrous chaos, and 20,000 gasps, or more.

The end of the series, the season, and maybe of Jackson's tenure as Warriors coach, pending some decisions by ownership.

"We did everything we could do to fight for Coach, and he did everything he could do to fight for us," said forward Draymond Green. "We're not going to act like this was just a one-way street where we're just fighting for him to keep his job.

"He put everything he had to put into it, along with his coaching staff, to fight for us."

And what did the Clippers prove in the end? That they have two great big men, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who were greater and larger than anybody the Warriors had.

And the Clippers have Chris Paul, who played his best game of the series.

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That was the series, that was what happened to close Game 7 at Staples Center, which the Clippers won at last, 126-121.

This game and series came down to a banked three-pointer by Andre Iguodala to put the Warriors ahead late and silence the crowd.

And blocked shot by DeAndre Jordan to get Staples Center thundering.

Then another. Then a dunk by Griffin, then another, then soon it was all thunder.

The Warriors pushed and pushed and Jackson cajoled them the whole way -- throwing out strange lineups that worked and inducing the Clippers to do odd things, too.

But the Warriors came up just too short, and the bigger, faster, stronger Clippers finally soared above them one last time.

My goodness, though, the Warriors made the Clippers sweat this -- and sweat the entire first round.

You could almost see the Clippers think to themselves: When will these Warriors go away?

The Clippers didn't claw their way to their first lead in this game until midway through the period, when a big run shook up the Warriors.

When it happened, you could almost see the Clippers give a sigh of relief: Finally.

They were tired of the Warriors, tired of this series, tired of the emotional upheaval caused by their owner, tired of everything that had to do with these seven games.

In the last two minutes, though, the Clippers made the Warriors go away.

That was how this ended -- after everything and every emotion possible.

In the manic sprint to the finish line, Stephen Curry made two free throws put the Warriors ahead 109-108 with 2:22 left.

But Jordan blocked two shots in the last few minutes, the Clippers converted baskets on the other side, and then Jordan slammed home an offensive rebound to make it 114-109.

A few possessions later, Griffin was whacked by Green, but still found a way to spin the ball into the basket, which made it 116-11 with 56 seconds left.

From there, the Clippers just held on, though the Warriors kept biting at their heels.

"We fought and we fought," Green said, "but when it all came down, they made the plays to win.".